Reusable Content & Text Blocks by Loomisoft

Description

Loomisoft’s Reusable Content & Text Blocks plugin allows you to define modular and repeated blocks of text and other content and place them within pages, posts, sidebars, widgetised areas or anywhere on your site via shortcodes, via the provided widget or via PHP.

The idea behind this plugin is two-fold. The first is to modularise repeated content so you can use the same content in multiple pages, posts and other places, which will allow you to change the relevant content in just one place rather than in dozens of pages and posts. The second is to provide an easy way to add complex custom content within sidebars and widgets. Being compatible with WPBakery’s Page Builder (formerly known as Visual Composer), Avada’s Fusion Builder, Beaver Builder and SiteOrigin Page Builder means that embedded blocks can have a richer range of elements, layout and styling.

Available from WordPress.org or directly through your WordPress site’s administrative pages, this plugin is provided completely free of charge so you can take advantage of all the benefits it has to offer.

Provides a shortcode generator dialogue box from within the WordPress editor so shortcodes can be added to posts and pages easily and quickly

Provides a widget so content blocks can be placed into sidebars and other widgetised areas using the normal WordPress widget handling processes

Provides versatile control over the how WordPress processes content, from adding of paragraph tags and/or running of shortcodes to full content processing

Allows custom variables to be defined when content blocks are called and allows variable values to be displayed via shortcode

Provides a number of other useful shortcodes to place dynamic text (e.g. date/time, site title, page title) into posts

Defining Content/Text Blocks

Content or text blocks can be added and managed via the custom “Content Blocks” post type in the same way that the normal WordPress posts and pages are. Once defined and published, they can be used in your posts, pages and other areas in your site in a very modular way.

Then, whenever you amend the content of the block, this change will be reflected everywhere the particular block is used … No more tracking down the old content in dozens of pages and posts and amending individually.

Placing Content Blocks within Your Site

Once defined, content blocks can be used (embedded) within posts, pages, sidebars or anywhere on your WordPress site by simply using shortcodes or widgets wherever shortcode processing or widgets are provided by WordPress or the theme.

If you happen to be a web developer and there are inaccessible areas of the theme where you want to enable content that your clients can amend as and when they need, you can even use the provided PHP functions to embed content blocks.

Works with Page Builders

This plugin not only provides the ability to modularise simple text content, it also works with page builders such as WPBakery’s Page Builder (formerly known as Visual Composer), Avada’s Fusion Builder, Beaver Builder, SiteOrigin Page Builder and, although not tested, possibly others.

This means that you can embed white text in a beautiful indigo box and even more complex structures!

Note: As at the time of publication of this page, compatible with WPBakery’s Page Builder version 5.4.2, Avada’s Fusion Builder version 1.2.2 (with Avada version 5.2.2), Beaver Builder version 1.10.9.2 and SiteOrigin Page Builder version 2.5.14.

Easy to Use Shortcode Generator

This plugin provides a simple to use shortcode generator dialogue box available directly from within the WordPress TinyMCE editor so shortcodes can be added to posts and pages easily and quickly. No need to remember the shortcode syntax or content block IDs or slugs.

Widget for Sidebars and Widgetised Areas

Provided with the plugin is a widget, accessible from your WordPress site’s widgets administration area so content blocks can be placed into sidebars and other widgetised areas using the normal widget management processes.

Content Processing

WordPress does a few things before the content from a page or post gets displayed on your site. For instance, it processes HTML paragraph (p) tags, it runs shortcodes and even sends the content to the theme and any plugins so they can do their thing to the content and include their bits.

This plugin gives you versatile control over these processes when a block is called from within a page or post … It allows you to:

Include or suppress paragraph tags inside the content block when, for instance, you want the text in the content block to show up as part of an existing line in your page/post

Run or suppress shortcodes inside the content block

Or do full content processing, which is essential for the correct operation of the page builders

Custom Variables

Allows custom variables to be defined when content blocks are called and allows variable values to be displayed via shortcode.

Useful Shortcodes

Provided with the plugin are a number of handy little shortcodes that allow you so place often useful pieces of text on your pages and posts, including the current date/time, site title and page/post title.

Documentation & Help

This plugin is both intuitive and easy to use. However, once installed, it has its own detailed documentation page provided within your WordPress site’s admin area. The same docuentation, with screenshots for guidance, is provided at: http://www.loomisoft.com/docs/reusable-content-text-blocks-wordpress-plugin/

Screenshots

Content Blocks Page

Adding Content Blocks

Content Blocks Edit Page

Inserting Content Blocks Using Shortcodes

Inserting Content Blocks Using Widgets

Editing Content Blocks Using Page Builders

Content Block Shortcode Generator Button

Content Block Shortcode Generator Screen

Blank Content Block Widget

Completed Content Block Widget

Installation

Available from WordPress.org, the plugin can be installed in two ways:

From your WordPress website’s administration menu:

Click Plugins > Add New

Search for “Loomisoft” and locate the plugin

Click “Install Now”

Activate the plugin

From WordPress.org:

Download the plugin from WordPress.org

Upload it to your site (please check https://codex.wordpress.org/Managing_Plugins how you can do this)

Activate the plugin

Once the plugin is installed and activated, you’re good to go!

FAQ

Installation Instructions

Available from WordPress.org, the plugin can be installed in two ways:

From your WordPress website’s administration menu:

Click Plugins > Add New

Search for “Loomisoft” and locate the plugin

Click “Install Now”

Activate the plugin

From WordPress.org:

Download the plugin from WordPress.org

Upload it to your site (please check https://codex.wordpress.org/Managing_Plugins how you can do this)

Activate the plugin

Once the plugin is installed and activated, you’re good to go!

Are content blocks easy to add and edit?

Yes. Content blocks are designed to be easy to manage by using the native WordPress post management functions so you will probably already be very familiar with the process. You can access the relevant pages by clicking “Content Blocks” on the WordPress admin menu.

Can content blocks be placed anywhere on a site

Content blocks can be placed within post/page content, within sidebars, and other areas via shortcode, via widgets and via PHP.

Can content blocks be used in other content blocks?

Yes. The normal shortcode can be used.

Can visual page builders be used to create content blocks?

Not only can you use the generic TinyMCE editor for putting content in a block, you can also use page builders such as WPBakery’s Page Builder (formerly known as Visual Composer), Avada’s Fusion Builder, Beaver Builder, SiteOrigin Page Builder. Other page builders may, in principle, also be compatible.

Reviews

I was looking for a plugin to help share a WPBakery Ultimate Add-ons Accordion element across pages. I thought I would have to trade the reuse against the ability to use Visual Composer (and editing Accordion shortcodes is nasty), but this plugin swooped in and saved the day with WPBakery support. 5 stars for that!

This plugin needs one more thing to put all similar plugins to rest. I am giving it 5 stars because it works as advertised, and it’s awesome that it works with Page Builders that use custom fields and not shortcodes.

That said, the only thing missing would be to also display custom fields data on the client side, so it this plugin can be used to generate true visually designed page templates for CPTs with custom fields for example.

The plugin “Custom Content Shortcodes” is able to display the values of the custom fields, but the “Reusable” content it creates does not work with Page Builders that use custom fields for it’s rows and columns. Both plugins have one component missing in order to create visual page templates using a page builder, and use that reusable page template to display the contents of a CPT that contains custom fields data.

I got tired of copying and pasting content every time I needed to repeat the same content in multiple areas. I tried various page builders but they bogged down my WordPress. I just wanted something light and simple, so I got rid of all the page builders I was trying out after finding this reusable content plugin.

It works great on a blog network! In addition to using it for information I repeat in multiple places, I also use it for creating a global message just above the blog titles, and for advertisements. I just change the messages in the plugin and the message auto updates wherever the instances appear.

1.0.7

1.0.8

1.1.0

Addition of greater options for the “para” parameter and how content is pre-processed before being rendered

General clean-up and improvements over code

1.2.0

Addition of shortcode generator dialogue box for TinyMCE editor

Major restructure of code and content block classes

1.2.1

Minor amend to text translation function calls to fix PHP warning

1.3.0

Addition of a variables function, allowing variables to be defined when content blocks are called, the values of which can be displayed via shortcode

1.3.1

Bugfix with Usage & About page experienced by some users under certain PHP settings

1.3.2

Amend to full content rendering when Visual Composer is present to ensure that VC custom styles for content blocks are included when blocks are added outside the main WordPress loop (e.g. in the header/footer).